Blog - Chris Schuette

08
Apr

This morning, I decided to sit down and record a stately, Classical piece on the piano. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, I sat down down at the Rhodes piano and started playing with a phaser.

Try to guess which one; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I then laid down a basic Rhodes part, decided I hated the phaser, threw it at an old guy for kicks, then put down a Rhodes Bass part and panned it hard left (to impress the wife.) After that I put together a drum part, decided I kinda suck at drums, so I cobbled together a drum part in software (ensuring enough changes so that I could use the word “cobbled.”) Finally, I added some tambourine because tambourine always makes the existential pain go away for a few hours.

Finally, while displaying a stunning lack of creativity, I named it “Powerplant,” which is a slang term for an internal combustion engine. I know, I’m actually pretty lousy at naming things; in a previous life, I was an incompetent taxonomist…which, now that I think about it, is a MUCH better name for a song.

Anyway, it’s a simple piece; hardly worth writing so many damn words to describe it. The important thing is, I’m meeting new people.

06
Apr

So, Isla is on Spring Break this week, and instead of sitting around listening to Led Zeppelin III, she decided we would take a (presumably) imaginary rocket ship around the solar system.

Pictured: Scientific Accuracy

The cool thing is that she already knows the order of the planets! I’m constantly impressed with her knowledge, especially when confronted with the general dumb-assery that I provide with alarming frequency. I even asked her why we weren’t going to Pluto, and she simply stated, “Pluto’s not a planet.”

As I wiped the tears from my eyes, I looked straight at her and said, “YOU’RE not a planet!” Swish.

But the best part of the experience? She made Space Crowns™ for our journey. They’re like regular crowns…in SPACE!!

30
Mar

Here is a original piece I came up with after looking at some illustrations by Edward Gorey. Even if you don’t know his name, you’ll probably recognize his style:

It’s a bit dark.

Maybe it was the cold damp weather, but I wound up composing a slightly Gothic and unsettling piece that (to MY ears anyway) complements the artwork adequately. I called this one “A Peculiar Familiar” because I get paid by the syllable.

People who really dig witchcraft will also tell you that a “familiar” is an animal, such as a black cat, who embodies a supernatural spirit and helps a witch to do witchy stuff.

09
Mar

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about my trip to the guitar store with Isla (I won’t say the name, because it’s not like I’ll get a discount on Mandolin Tuning Fluid.) I should probably give a bit of backstory.

Isla has enjoyed music her entire life. As she gets older, I’ll be interested to hear how music affects her, since she can only experience it with the help of her cochlear implants.

Remember those?

We might learn that certain instruments sound less pleasant to her ears than others. That being said, she asked for and received a guitar last Christmas. The guitar has seen better days, but she loves to strum and I’ve been teaching her how to hold it properly. She knows the names of the parts of the guitar and she seems to understand that it should rarely be stepped upon. Considering that Patty and I had no idea if Isla would ever be able to hear, well, anything, it’s astounding that she shows such a natural love of music.

Cate also seems to have an innate love of music as she sits at the piano and deliberately plays individual keys (as opposed to simply pounding on them, like daddy) But Cate’s pride and joy is the ukulele she received for Christmas. She loves it, and she even lets me play it every once in awhile.

I should point out that Patty and I make music and musical instruments available to our girls, but we don’t make them do anything they don’t want to do. Eventually, if they’re interested, they can take lessons from a real teacher. We just want the girls to be familiar with how music is made and to simply love the experience. As the following slightly blurry photos demonstrate: so far, so good.

01
Mar

Here is a light-hearted track I composed for a short film. I was going for a cartoonish/clumsy vibe, so you can hear that the timing is (deliberately) a little off.

I love doing these kinds of goofy tracks, as well as the more scary/horror stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing straightforward, traditional soundtracks, but it’s nice to let my musical imagination have a bit of fun.

By the way, an ever-growing amount of my music is available for licensing at Pond5.com. They’ve been a great company to work with and they have a huge selection of stock music, photos, and footage for use in your projects.

22
Feb

Fun day out with Isla yesterday! We went to the Community Center and she was playing with a little boy. When I told him she was deaf, he immediately starting signing to her! I was shocked! (You can probably tell by all the exclamation points.)

Turns out, his grandma, grandpa, and cousin (who were there too) are deaf, so I got a chance to have a nice conversation in ASL. The boy’s aunt was also there, and she told me she is an ASL interpreter. They initially thought he was simply teaching a little girl ASL until they saw me sign “share,””wait your turn,” and “Barry Goldwater.” (That last one is a REALLY long story.)

After that, Isla and I headed over to Guitar Center where we checked out the acoustic guitars. She was very respectful, and asked my permission before touching any of them. She also had her eye on a nice purple Luna “Passionflower” parlour guitar.

She’ll have to battle me for it, of course.

02
Nov

We have been incredibly fortunate to have a very mild Autumn here in Minnesota this year. Normally, it lasts most of a Tuesday afternoon and part of a Wednesday, but this year, it’s been warm, sunny, and really all kinds of awesome.

I took Indie & Bear out for a nice long walk over the weekend and decided to capture some of the local beauty in this short film. I’m glad I did because before you know it, we’ll be digging out from under several metric feet of down-home Minnesota snow. That’s OK; I’ll probably film some of that too.

The film is 3m28s long and features the song “Farther Away” from my solo piano album, “All You Know,” which is available on iTunes, as well as from my online store